13 students sent to hospital when bus wrecks en route to Roig rehearsal

Students from de Zavala Middle School sing during An Evening with Kaitlin Roig, an event co-sponsored by AGN Media, during which the Sandy Hook teacher spoke. The students were on their way to rehearse for the event when the bus on which they rode was involved in a two-vehicle accident in northwest Amarillo that sent 13 students to a local hospital.

More than a dozen students from de Zavala Middle School were taken to a local hospital Thursday as a precautionary measure after an accident involving a school bus and a car in northwest Amarillo, officials said.

Amarillo Independent School District spokesperson Holly Shelton said at about 5 p.m. that two students still were hospitalized for observation following a collision between the bus in which they were riding and a Pontiac Grand Am about noon at the corner of Tascosa Road and Coulter Street in northwest Amarillo.

The driver of the Pontiac was taken to the hospital with serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening, police said.

Amarillo Independent School District administrators have spoken with the parents of 13 students taken to a local hospital, Shelton said.

Police said 42 children were on the bus. Another bus was sent to pick up the students who were not injured in the accident, they said.

Shelton said the students were on a field trip. According to a voice message left at the AGN Meida offices by a de Zavala official, the students were on their way to Amarillo Civic Center to rehearse their singing performance for An Evening with Kaitlin Roig, an event co-sponsored by AGN Media that took place later Thursday.

The students voted after the wreck and decided to sing at the event that featured the teacher from Sandy Hook Elementary, de Zavala Principal Angie Noel said during the event.

They sung dispite the wreck that police said happened when the Pontiac was traveling west on Tascosa and struck the bus as it was turning left from Coulter onto Tascosa Road.

AISD contracts bus services through First Student Inc., based in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is the first year the district has used the company for bus services.

First Student provides bus services for more than 1,400 school districts across the country, according to the company’s website.

“The safety of all of the students we transport is a core value of First Student and a responsibility we take very seriously,” spokesperson Stephanie Creech said.

Shelton said when incidents such as this occur, AISD personnel at the school and district level work to inform and update parents of children who might have been involved or affected.

In this incident, she said police were called and administrators were sent to accompany students to the hospital, back to school and to accompany parents to the hospital.

Another bus carrying AISD students was involved in a wreck Thursday afternoon near Bowie. AISD officials said a bus carrying Amarillo High School cheerleaders to the state volleyball tournament in Garland was involved in an accident on U.S. Highway 287. No serious injuries were reported, officials said.

Shelton, who has been with AISD for the past five years, said she did not recall another scenario when two accidents occurred in such a small time period.

Shelton said they have not received feedback from any of the parents whose children were involved in the collisions.